The Emotional Benefits of Working Out

Transfer is kind of a magic word in the world of strength and conditioning. How will those high-intensity intervals transfer into endurance? How will those dumbbell presses make your throws more powerful or your arms bigger? Transfer isn’t just physical, though. It also lives in the realm of your mental skills. Discomfort tolerance. Patience. Technical excellence. Creative problem solving. And grit — lots of grit. Exercise is an opportunity to build those skills and then pressure-treat them with all kinds of stress, from load and velocity to fatigue and distraction. I remember falling in love with Brazilian jiu-jitsu many years ago. Not because I was particularly good at it (I was not) but because it showed me that I was far tougher than I realized. I just wouldn’t have believed you if you’d have told me how persistent I could be. How tenacious. Or that I would think clearly and creatively under pressure. It literally had to be beaten into me. RELATED: How to Start Working Out, Explained As a guy who struggled to take a compliment, I needed a case that was strong enough to stand up in the Supreme Court of my own self-judgment. Positive words were not enough; I needed accurate words in the presence of actual evidence. I had to be able to describe what was going well — and how I course-corrected when they weren’t. How Gym Habits Help Build Your Inner Self I have a particular love of the weight room because you have so much control over your progression. You can always create legitimate success for yourself, even if it’s millimeters at a time. You start by finding a task that you can perform reasonably well. Something that is a little bit beyond easy — where there’s enough challenge for things to feel real. That’s where you set your standard for movement. Next, you see what stresses you can layer on without compromising that standard. Maybe you add weight. Or add reps. Or density (how much work you can get done over a fixed period of time). Maybe you need to get more creative. Here, you can raise your technical standards. Or create fatigue before going into things. Or even take away some things you might over-rely on, like listening to music or training in a familiar environment. RELATED: Common Workout Mistakes That Are Holding You Back Not every training session needs to be a grinder. However, if you’re training your whole self, you will periodically (maybe 5% of the time) need to come face to face with what really tests you. However, having done the physical preparation (that’s what the other 95% is for), you will have cleared the path for your mind to push you to the next level. Your internal language is important here. It’s something you will have practiced, one rep at a time. Now, you will deepen your understanding of what you’re truly capable of. Real-Life Traits That Help in the Gym Toronto-based performance coach Beth McCharles sees these three traits in high performers: Self-Awareness: Do we know what we stand for? Do we know our values? Are we able to check in with ourselves? That allows us to be more durable in life.Adaptability: Can we deal with change and mistakes? That’s where emotion regulation comes in. The best performers in the world have bad moments, but what they do in those moments prevents bad moments from becoming bad days. Can you stop your mind from spiraling and move forward into being more present?Sustainability: Discipline and mental toughness are not the end goal. Instead, they are methods you can use to stay on the path. Transferring Gym Skills to Real Life One style of training that I sometimes prescribe involves extreme discomfort. The process begins when you are already straining to perform another rep or to maintain a certain level of output for time (wattage, bar speed, whatever). This is the starting point. As you exhaust your physical capacities and feel the urge to quit, the real work begins. You notice what internal signals you’re experiencing — and then to build your mental capacity to work with them and endure just a little longer. Learning your internal vocabulary is essential. When you recognize an emotion, you can craft an intentional response to it. Fear. Anger. Doubt. Sadness. They can all be allies. But to ignore their existence is to weaken yourself. The hardest things you’ll do in your life will take place outside of the gym. They’ll have to do with tough emotions far more often than they will with physical feats of strength. The tools you develop will prepare you to recognize and respond to those signals. The actions you take will define you. This is the kind of transfer that allows you to step into who you’re truly capable of becoming. You Might Also Dig: How Much Weight Should You Lift?Health and Fitness Benefits of Improving FlexibilityWhy It’s So Important to Take Rest Days